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+--- Thread: Best XBMC HTPC Hardware with HDMI / HD / 1080p + HDMI Audio (/showthread.php?tid=34235)
- BLKMGK - 2009-01-02
You said:
Quote:The reason for me picking a kinda low end CPU and RAM is that I only have a 1080i TV (what a cheapo i am), so my concern is not playback of 1080p content. My main concern is will this be enough for 720P/1080i content on XBMC Live.
Emphasis mine on the 1080i statement. If your TV can do 1080i that is a HIGHER resolution than 720P. The difference between 1080i and 1080P is that one is interlaced - visually likely not much difference but certainly higher resolution than 720P and certainly requires more CPU than 720.
So no I didn't misspeak if what you said about your display is true. If you have a 1080i TV then why not drive it at that resolution or at least have the ability to do so? The CPU you were looking at won't do 1080 IMO.
That case LOOKS great, so does mine. I regret buying mine because I bought it for looks not realizing what a PITA it was going to be to get things like the infrared receiver working and the VFD display running. It is also nearly impossible to read the display from the couch and the USB MCE remote receiver I have is way better - I can put it anywhere convenient.
My advice would be to buy a small quiet mid tower case and hide it. Put it behind the TV or AV center, in another room with an adjoining wall, stuff it in a closet and run cables maybe. The MCE infrared receivers are very small and can be put almost anywhere - mine is on top of the TV and it was easy to get working. That case comes with an MCE remote, do NOT know what it is using for an infrared receiver and they don't tell you much about the display either. They plug the receiver into a RAM slot (?!) which I've never seen so who knows what it is or if it will work with Linux...
Here's a(nother) link to the build I and others have been talking about http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9999386
- pilluli - 2009-01-02
BLKMGK Wrote:I regret buying mine because I bought it for looks not realizing what a PITA it was going to be to get things like the infrared receiver working and the VFD display running. It is also nearly impossible to read the display from the couch and the USB MCE remote receiver I have is way better - I can put it anywhere convenient.
Hi BLKMGK, Do you mind sharing the exact MCE remote model you're using? I'm going to try to convert the xbox USB receiver following some posts in this forum but knowing my soldering skills I might start to look for alternatives that for sure work in linux.
I've got a harmony remote so I'm only interested in a cheap IR receiver that works in linux though...
regards,
- BLKMGK - 2009-01-02
I have two of the version 2s from this page -> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/MCE_Remote#Media_Center_Remotes
Anything that will work well with Myth ought to work well with XBMC since they both use Lirc. the keymaps for the MCE remotes are already in XBMC though and have worked well for me, I've done NO tweaking of config files for either of my two systems. Interestingly each of the remotes I have took a different Lirc setting to work but once that was done they worked fine.
I have a Harmony remote for my primary system too. For some reason when I would switch away from XBMC it kept trying to shut down the PC - grr! Trying to solve that I rendered their damned stupid WEB based software non-functional on the one laptop it was loaded on and haven't gone back to try and fix <sigh> Love those remotes but their setup software pisses me off. I found manually programming each key from the working MCE remote worked better than telling the Harmony to use an MCE profile BTW. First Harmont I setup for this box worked great (Harmony 360) but the one I have now has been a PITA and they gave no method to migrate to a new remote or clone settings
- pilluli - 2009-01-02
BLKMGK:
Thanks for the link. You're right about the harmony software. I hate the bloody thing, and only works on windows (I've got all my machines on linux now) so I've got to reboot vmware everytime I need to configure it
The remote itself is quite handy though.However, I should tell you that when my daughter broke my last harmony remote I could transfer all my settings to the new model I bought. It is the 555 (other was 545 or something like that) They were pretty similar so I might be the reason they allowed me to transfer the settings...
regards,
- mr_raider - 2009-01-02
BLKMGK Wrote:You said:
Emphasis mine on the 1080i statement. If your TV can do 1080i that is a HIGHER resolution than 720P. The difference between 1080i and 1080P is that one is interlaced - visually likely not much difference but certainly higher resolution than 720P and certainly requires more CPU than 720.
Be careful now! A 1080i TV, LCD or plasma can have a native resolution as low as 1366x768. In that case 1080i will be de-interlaced and scaled down, while 1080p will be just scaled down. If that's the case, outputting anything above 720p is a waste.
At any rate, no LCD can display interlaced resolutions in native format, and the only 1080i content out there is ATSC broadcast.
1080i only requires about 12% more bandwidth than 720p
- BLKMGK - 2009-01-03
Sounds like he needs to check out his display specs but IMO it's still best to be prepared for a future upgrade <shrug> Buying twice sux!
- dirtylion - 2009-01-04
someone know a mainboard with onboard gfx card which work with xbmc live for 1080p playback and optical audio output.
should i buy
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce9400 ?
or better a mainboard with g45 chip ?
- olympia - 2009-01-04
dirtylion Wrote:someone know a mainboard with onboard gfx card which work with xbmc live for 1080p playback and optical audio output.
should i buy
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce9400 ?
or better a mainboard with g45 chip ?
ASUS P5N7A-VM would be a perfect choice:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=42863
- BLKMGK - 2009-01-04
dirtylion Wrote:someone know a mainboard with onboard gfx card which work with xbmc live for 1080p playback and optical audio output.
should i buy
Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce9400 ?
or better a mainboard with g45 chip ?
Just how many places are you going to ask this question? Try the Live! forum - the Linux forum maybe but also the Windows forum?!
- dirtylion - 2009-01-04
second time that you blame me BLKMGK. maybe you can help me.. !
- falc410 - 2009-01-04
I have the Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce9400 using Windows and the HDMI output and so far it runs perfect. Put a E7300 (2.66 Ghz) and 2 GB RAM on it and haven't had trouble with 1080p yet, although the killa sample did have had dropped frames, so you might want to go for E8400 (3.0 Ghz).
- BLKMGK - 2009-01-04
falc410 Wrote:I have the Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce9400 using Windows and the HDMI output and so far it runs perfect. Put a E7300 (2.66 Ghz) and 2 GB RAM on it and haven't had trouble with 1080p yet, although the killa sample did have had dropped frames, so you might want to go for E8400 (3.0 Ghz).
will it boot on Live? That will be his next question
- falc410 - 2009-01-04
never tried it, but if the geforce 9300 works, the 9400 chip will work as well. it's the same chip just clocked a lil faster.
- BLKMGK - 2009-01-04
So should probably boot since Live has NVIDIA drivers but won't do HDMI audio since it has neither the proper ALSA or later NVIDIA drivers for it yet. HDMI vid should be good and if it has a digital audio that too ought to work.
I booted my later ASUS board on Hardy and it was fine except for HDMI audio so I had to goto Intrepid to ease the install of the later NVIDIA drivers and ALSA. I *think* he will be okay but dunno' for sure. any chance you could burn a copy of Live to test for him just to be sure since you actually have the hardware?
- olympia - 2009-01-04
Actually you need ALSA upgrade on those 9300/ 9400 systems (based on my experiences with 9300) not only becasue of HDMI audio, but for proper sound quaity as well (even in case of SPDIF). Without that, I experienced high pitched noise/ bad sound quality... SO Live in its own, I think not enough...